Do you really want to know why your FedEx guy seems so pissed off or even throws your packages? The truth is that Ground and Home Delivery drivers don't even work for FedEx! Yup, bet you didn't even know that, we actually work for private companies that contract for FedEx, buy their own vehicles, slap the FedEx logo on it then they have to purchase uniforms for us to look like employees.
I can't speak for everyone and I can only give the point of view of a driver in Florida, but not all of us are really all that upset even though everyone has their days right? Believe it or not, your packages are not handled as poorly as you may think, hell they go through a rougher ride with the semi truck and processing on belt lines and package handlers than they do with the driver. But why do we appear to be so "pissed off" or unapproachable most of the time? Well to begin with, we do the exact same job as the UPS driver right? Well we are paid about $30-$50 less per year they them and we don't get benefits of any kind, that could be a good reason lol. Despite the lack of pay or benefits, there are still many of us that like doing our job and stay happy doing so, there really are perks to doing it if you have the right mindset.
We start our mornings by entering the terminal and being searched by a security guard whom is normally pretty friendly and overall a cool person just earning a paycheck like us, we then have to enter an office to sign out our scanners and the office staff is normally pretty cool at that point in time since they are not slammed yet. As you walk to the truck you sign in the scanner and see how many packages and stops you have for the day, dammit I have 170 stops again and I won't be finished until at least 6pm, keeping in mind that it is roughly 7am when you are doing this.
As you are walking up to your truck you see this gigantic pile of boxes behind your truck and guess what.....you get to load your own truck now!
Loading your truck really isn't the bad part about the morning, it is actually really good as you are accountable for all of your packages for the day and you get to load however you want so you can run your route the best way you know how. The part that sucks is that FedEx lovingly hires someone part time and just throws them on a belt with no training at all, what does that mean for the driver? It means that the package handler tries like hell to do a job that they have little or no training in and they put the wrong packages at the wrong trucks and the drivers get to chase them down and find where their missing packages went, normally at the bottom of the pile of the truck that is the furthest away from them...seriously! On top of the package handlers misplacing your packages, you have to deal with anyone before them that had possession of the package and they lost it! But wait, it gets better, the driver is responsible for finding this package among the thousands in the terminal with little to no help, when we ask for help we are ignored by the station employees because they are so swamped that helping you would stop them from doing another part of their job, you could always ask the P&D (pick up & delivery) manager for help, but you would get a better response from talking to the wall because "you don't work for him" as he says and he has better things to do like walk around and smoke, not run his station properly...at least where I work.
Ready to hit the road?
Alright, now we have the truck all loaded up and we are on the route, what could possibly go wrong now that we have left the chaos of the terminal? Honestly, most days are pretty good as far as delivering is concerned and most people that you come across are fairly nice but you do have obstacles while working. We all know the stereotype of the mail man and dogs, guess what....we have a bigger problem with them than the mail man does since we have to walk up to your door so keep your damn dogs inside if you know you have a package coming or you just may not get your package, no we don't have to leave it if we feel the dog is going to attack no matter what you say it will do. I can tell you on my route there are three dogs that will not hesitate to attack and there are numerous ones that just greet with a tongue and even a hug or get into my truck with me!
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| Every time I deliver to this home, this dog is super happy and jumps in to say hello |
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| He is one of many that are cool like this and just want to say hi |
My boss on the other hand isn't so cool with dogs, he's been chased into the truck before even while I was with him one day. Crazy animals aside, we actually do have many pressures and stresses that accompany this job, while we are driving down the road looking for your address we struggle to see it, maybe that is due to the fact that many people don't even have it on the friggin house! Drives me nuts when I pass your house because you can't spend the $10 and 5 minutes to put your house number up where I can see it then expect me to deliver you something. Either way, as we are looking for your address we are also driving and paying attention to the road, this is actually life or death in Florida because there are so many damn idiots that walk literally in the middle of the road or they feel the need to casually ride their bike out in front of you, believe it or not it's the kids and the animals that are the smart ones that stay out of the road most of the time. Please...Please USE THE DAMN SIDEWALK! THAT'S WHY IT'S THERE!! Yes most of the time we are very damn good at looking for your house, watching the road, watching the moron walking in the road and watching for kids that at the last second run out in front of us to grab a toy that just flew in the road....it does happen and quite a bit.
We endure more than you would ever think in one day, the heat in Florida puts our truck at about 120 degrees just in the cab alone not to mention what it can get up to in the back, traffic is nuts with all of our tourists that come here to sight see and not watch the road, we are pressured to get stops done at certain times or by certain times, again we have your lovely dog that chases us into the truck and on top of it we have the occasional asshole that wants to give us a hard time by stepping out in front of us and stopping us just to say we need to slow down, say a nasty comment as you walk away from the door, hell I have had a deputy sheriff pull me over...lights and all and even someone in the back going to jail, just to ask if I delivered a package to him! People will stop their car in front of you to get your truck number and call to complain about the dumbest things.
What people don't take into consideration is how hard we work every single day to get your package to your door on time! We take furniture that weighs over 100 pounds to the 4th floor so you don't have to, put your box on your back porch or in the garage since you asked, we make phone calls to make sure you will be home to sign and even stay out late to make sure you get your package since it's a birthday present for tomorrow. Instead of paying attention to the very few people that make mistakes in our line of work, the ones that get caught throwing a package or anything else negative, try appreciating the majority of us that do our job, do it well and even go above what we need to because we give a damn, instead of calling in and complaining which makes our jobs harder, do us a favor and call in a compliment for what we have done for you, this makes your FedEx driver happy.
I welcome any FedEx driver, UPS or even USPS driver to comment if you feel the need.
